This desperately needed to happen.
In a sweeping victory for President Donald Trump, a federal appeals court on Friday overturned a lower court ruling and gave the green light to his executive order limiting the power of federal employee unions—marking a major step forward in reining in unelected bureaucrats and restoring control to the Oval Office.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, long known for its liberal leanings, stunned critics by ruling 2–1 in favor of the Trump administration. The panel—made up of two Trump-appointed judges and one Obama appointee—dismissed claims that the executive order was retaliatory and instead found that Trump’s decision was legally justified and rooted in national security interests.
The executive order, signed in March, blocked union bargaining rights for certain federal workers in agencies that deal with sensitive security functions. A previous ruling from U.S. District Judge James Donato had blocked the order, siding with six powerful labor unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)—the nation’s largest federal employee union.
That ruling temporarily stopped 21 federal agencies from implementing Trump’s order, which critics in the left-wing union establishment called “retaliatory” and “anti-democratic.” But on Friday, the appeals court firmly rejected those claims.
“The President would have taken the same action even absent the protected union activity,” the court declared, noting that federal agencies tied to national security are not bound by the outdated 1978 Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute.
The court’s ruling is a powerful endorsement of Trump’s America First agenda, which aims to dismantle bloated federal bureaucracy and restore accountability to Washington. It also comes just weeks after another federal judge in Texas tried to deny the Trump administration’s authority to cancel union contracts across multiple agencies.
AFGE President Everett Kelley launched into a tirade following the ruling, accusing Trump of “bullying tactics” and claiming the move was an attack on “patriotic civil servants”—even though nearly one-third of federal workers impacted by the order work in national defense roles that demand loyalty to country, not political unions.
“This administration’s actions are a direct threat to democracy,” Kelley claimed in a March statement—despite the executive order being entirely lawful and upheld by the courts.
A 2024 labor report revealed that while nearly 50% of new federal employees now join unions, only 6% of private-sector workers do—highlighting the union stranglehold inside the federal government.
The court urged the administration to hold off on canceling existing union contracts until final litigation is complete. Still, the message is clear: President Trump’s fight to break union grip on government power is gaining ground—and the courts are finally catching up.